Devonte Graham wants out of his signed letter of intent to Appalachian State. The school is not letting him, and there have been multiple calls from free will-ians for that to happen.

One site went as far to say that Graham, a 6-foot, 165-pound guard who has chosen to attend prep school this season, was being held “hostage” by the school, and Appalachian State took exception to that, responding with a lengthy statement. Here it is, in part:

“With his family's blessing and support, Devonte Graham willingly and excitedly chose to sign a National Letter of Intent with Appalachian State last November after having the opportunity to be recruited by 351 NCAA Division I programs. Furthermore, if he thought that a more desirable situation might arise in the future, he also had the option to wait until the late signing period in April to make his college choice. Since he chose to sign a binding Letter of Intent with Appalachian State, we stopped recruiting a large number of student-athletes at his position in his class who would have been grateful for the opportunity to receive a full scholarship to attend and play basketball at our great institution.

“As our coaching staff fully expected, Devonte had a terrific senior season last winter and, accordingly, drew the interest of programs from what are widely recognized as "power conferences." However, due to his binding agreement with Appalachian State, other programs were not permitted by NCAA rules to contact him, be it directly or through people claiming to represent his interests. Due to our concerns that these rules were not followed and the fact that we had turned away all other potential student-athletes that could have capably filled his spot on the roster, we denied his request for a release from his binding Letter of Intent. We also made the NCAA aware of our concerns.”

(ESPN.com reported, citing sources, that the Appalachian State coaching staff believes N.C. State was the school tampering with Graham, though Wolfpack coach Mark Gottfried vehemently denies that claim.)

UTEP’s Tim Floyd took the same hard-line stance recently in denying Isaac Hamilton a release from the Miners’ program. Hamilton will now have to sit out a season before being eligible at UCLA.

Bottom line: It is the job of Graham, like every other athlete before and after him, to understand what he's signing when he's signing it. Isn't that what we were all taught? Schools may intentionally leave out the fact that the NLI clearly stacks the deck in its favor, but can you blame any of them? If Graham doesn't understand that he needs only to sign a grant-in-aid, which awards him the scholarship but allows him to still be recruited elsewhere, then it's his own fault. Can't say we blame Appalachian State for protecting itself. Them’s the rules.